Overview
Haji, Kombo, and Mohamed measured toxic elements in seven creams and three foundation products using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence. The cream group contained detectable mercury, bismuth, lead, cadmium, and copper, while the foundation group contained niobium, tellurium, copper, tantalum, and total arsenic. The most certification-relevant findings are extremely high mercury in one whitening cream, lead above the cited 20 ppm cosmetic limit in one cream, and cadmium in the same cream matrix.
Key numbers
All values are source-reported ppm, equivalent to mg/kg for these finished-product matrices.
Cream products
Table 2 summarizes the detected-metal ordering in creams as Hg > Bi > Pb > Cd > Cu; arsenic, niobium, antimony, tellurium, and tantalum were below detection in the cream group.
| Finding | Source-reported value |
|---|---|
| Highest mercury (Hg) in a whitening cream | 67,900 ppm |
| Highest Bi in a cream | 54,000 ppm |
| lead (Pb) in one beauty cream | 56.0 ppm |
| cadmium (Cd) in the same beauty cream context | 23.0 ppm |
| Cu in three cream samples | 1.0 ppm |
| Source-cited mercury (Hg) limit for skin/lightening creams | 1 ppm |
| Source-cited lead (Pb) maximum permissible limit for skin/lightening creams | 20 ppm |
The descriptive-statistics table reports cream means of Cu 0.6 ppm, cadmium (Cd) 3.3 ppm, mercury (Hg) 20,014.3 ppm, lead (Pb) 8.0 ppm, and Bi 9,385.7 ppm. The text states that the highest Hg value exceeded the WHO/FDA limit for skin and lightening creams and that the 56.0 ppm Pb value exceeded the source’s cited 20 ppm maximum permissible limit.
Foundation products
Table 2 summarizes the detected-metal ordering in foundations as Nb > Te > Cu > Ta > As; cadmium, antimony, mercury, lead, and bismuth were not detected in foundations.
| Finding | Source-reported value |
|---|---|
| Highest Nb in foundations | 31.0 ppm |
| Highest Te in foundations | 30.0 ppm |
| Highest Cu in foundations | 15.0 ppm |
| Highest Ta in foundations | 14.0 ppm |
| Highest total As in foundations | 6.0 ppm |
The descriptive-statistics table reports foundation means of Cu 9.3 ppm, total arsenic (As) 2.7 ppm, Nb 12.7 ppm, Te 18.0 ppm, and Ta 4.7 ppm.
Methods (brief)
The authors analyzed seven cream products and three foundation products using an energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (Rigaku NEX CG). The assessed elements were Cu, Cd, Nb, Ta, Hg, Pb, Bi, total As, Sb, and Te, reported in ppm. The PDF does not report wet-chemistry digestion, LOD/LOQ values, or arsenic/mercury speciation; arsenic is therefore routed only as total arsenic context and mercury as total mercury.
Implications
Certification: This source is direct finished-product occurrence evidence for skin-lightening creams and foundation-type cosmetics. It is not food evidence and should not enter dietary benchmark pools.
Courses: Useful as a high-contrast example of how skin-lightening products can contain intentionally or unintentionally high mercury and lead, while other face cosmetics may show different element patterns.
App: Supports personal-care risk flags for skin-lightening creams and face/foundation products, especially for markets where informal or imported cosmetics are common.
Microbiome: No microbiome data.
Related evidence
- Skin Lightening Cream — RETIRED (out of HMTc scope)
- Makeup — foundation, powders, blush/rouge
- Face/neck leave-on skin care (moisturizers, serums, night creams, leave-on masks)
- Mercury, Total
- Lead
- Cadmium
- Arsenic, Total
- Copper
- Tellurium
Update history
No substantive edit history is available in this build. The full commit record is available in git.